Meaning & Origins

English (chiefly southern Yorkshire and East Midlands): regional name from the district in southern Yorkshire around Sheffield and Ecclesfield called Hallam, or a habitational name from a place of this name in Derbyshire. The Derbyshire name is from Old English halum, dative plural of halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’ (see Hale 1). The Yorkshire district, sometimes called Hallamshire, is possibly of the same derivation or alternatively from hallum, dative plural of Old English hall ‘stone’, ‘rock’, Old Norse hallr.